Cosmetic and personal care products are available in various forms and one of the forms that are desired by many consumers is a clear aqueous product. At the same time, the consumer expects that such a product will provide desirable cosmetic benefits to keratinous substrates such as hair and skin.
These cosmetic benefits can be provided by the presence of water-insoluble ingredients, for example, oils, silicones and other lipophilic materials, in the product.
However, certain water-insoluble ingredients, which are oftentimes desirable for the treatment of keratinous substrates, are inherently difficult to incorporate into aqueous systems, such as shampoos, conditioners and skin care compositions, without forming a traditional emulsion in either cream or lotion form. Oftentimes, the presence of such ingredients at levels that would impart appreciable cosmetic benefits to hair or skin and/or properties to cosmetic and personal care products results in unstable formulations resulting in undesirable phase separations in aqueous systems.
Therefore, in the formulation of clear aqueous compositions, water-insoluble compounds do not lend themselves to being used therein, due to their inability to significantly associate with the water present in the system. As a result, the presence of these water-insoluble ingredients is generally minimal in personal care products and cosmetic products that employ aqueous systems. Thus, the difficulties in formulating such compositions deprives the consumer of products that can better deliver cosmetic benefits to hair and skin such as conditioning, cleansing, coloring of hair, styling of hair, skin care, and better application and spreadability of products.
Thus, there remains a need for an aqueous composition which can carry increased amounts of water-insoluble materials while remaining both homogeneous and clear in appearance. There also remains a need for an aqueous system which can carry increased amounts of water-insoluble materials such as oils and other lipophilic ingredients in order to deliver desirable benefits to hair and skin.
It has been surprisingly and unexpectedly discovered that the combination of at least one alkoxylated polyamine, at least one organic acid chosen from alkyl acids, alkoxylated monoacids and mixtures thereof, at least one solvent, and at least one water-insoluble compound such as a lipophilic compound, yields a composition which is clear in appearance and stable. Moreover, the inventive composition remains clear and stable even if additional solvent such as in particular water is added thereto.
It has also been discovered that the use of this clear composition on keratinous substrates, such as hair and skin, results in desirable and beneficial effects on the substrates, such as in particular improved delivery of active ingredients, improved cosmetic effects such as improved color retention on colored-treated hair, improved conditioning, improved hair styling effects and manageability, improved shine, improved protection from environmental and chemical damage, and enhanced color is the case of coloring compositions.